Why Deathstroke in “Leaked” Video is Important to the DC Universe

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It’s majorly grainy, and it’s filmed off another screen with a shaky cam, but this un-captioned clip from Ben Affleck’s Twitter undeniably features that world-class super villain, Deathstroke. There he goes, stalking toward the camera in full commando gear. There he goes, craning his neck to show off all the contours of a blue/orange helmet custom-made for one-eyed assassins. There he is… teasing an appearance in the Justice League movie? Or maybe the next solo Batman? Give it a good squint.

Your guess about what this apparent bit of test footage pertains to is as good as ours at the moment. As mentioned, Affleck’s presented the clip without comment. And it’s doubtful he was able to let it slip without going through a whole gauntlet of approvals at Warner’s publicity department. Indeed, given how the ganked footage of the Suicide Squad teaser built major buzz at Comic Con last year, you’ve got to imagine the ad people have seen the viral value of official/unofficial leaks like this, by now.

Is it a tease of a teaser? A peak at a character, long before he gets a publicity still? It may be a while before we know the answer to either. We do know much about the man otherwise called “Slade Wilson,” though.

First off, if “Slade Wilson” sounds an awful lot like “Wade Wilson” to you, that’s no coincidence. Deadpool did, in fact, start off as mutantdom’s parody of this character.

Debuting in the early 80s, he was an arch enemy for the Teen Titans, at first. A kind of super-soldier serum grants him enhanced physical prowess which–when coupled with his mastery of nearly all martial arts–makes Deathstroke scarily lethal as an adversary. Slade’s gone on to clash with Batman, Green Arrow, and nearly every other member of the Justice League. Outside of comics, he’s memorably appeared in the Titans toons, the Arkham games, and the Arrow show. However, if we’re picking up on Affleck’s hint right, this would be his first appearance in a full-length, live-action feature film. And that’s exciting, because Deathstroke’s far more dangerous in one-to-one combat than any foe Batman’s faced on screen so far–including Bane.

What’s your read on this little clip? Is Affleck just trolling us? Or could this truly be Batman’s next big bad? Drop all your thoughts, feelings, and theories in the talkback.